Is it Larkin’s day?

The National Baseball Hall of Fame will announce its election results for the 2012 class today (Monday) at 3 p.m. ET, with coverage beginning on MLB.com and MLB Network at 2 p.m. ET.

Click here for a break down on Larkin and the other candidates, like Jack Morris.

Click here to see the ballots of my MLB.com colleagues that have Hall votes.

My prediction is that only Larkin gets in today and he will be on the high 70s-low 80s percent of the ballots. He needs to be on 75 percent of the BBWAA ballots to get in. Last year, on his second try, he was at 62.1 percent.

Larkin was a lifetime .295 hitter with 198 home runs, 960 RBIs, 2,340 hits, a .371 on-base percentage and 379 stolen bases. Of course, he was part of 1990 World Series championship team and the 1995 National League Most Valuable Player.

Further down the list of accomplishments, Larkin was also a 12-time All-Star, a three-time Gold Glove winner, a nine-time Silver Slugger.

Compare Larkin to the two other HOF shortstops of his era and he’s as good or better offensively. Larkin had a career .815 OPS (on-base-plus slugging percentage), while Cal Ripken Jr. was at .788 and the lighter hitting Ozzie Smith was at .666. Even Robin Yount, who switched to the outfield in the midst of his career, had a .788 OPS.

In case you’re wondering, there are 10 men in the HOF primarily as Reds:

5 Comments

Ahhh the memories. I remember when Larkin was battling Kurt Stillwell for the Shortstop position. Good decision Reds. This should be a crowning moment for a hometown player who did it right on the field. While not as flashy as Ozzie he was spectacular in the field and lethal with the bat.

I was coaching a high school team at that time (when Larkin was emerging) and one of the parents who served as our volunteer pitching coach had University of Michigan connections and began raving about the Wolverine who was climbing fast in the Reds’ system. That was my first exposure to him, never having heard of him during his high school career at Moeller. Was aware of his brother, then on the XU basketball squad. Needless to say, I wasn’t living in Cincinnati in those days or I would have undoubtedly known of him before that moment. Anyway, all that raving by that parent proved correct. It comes to ultimate fruition today, I hope. By the way, that parent volunteer was one of the best baseball minds I’ve ever encountered. We went to a state championship showdown that year and lost, but to get that far was largely his doing.

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